IT departments are failing to measure their own
performance or service levels to the business, according to new
research. Without such basic measure in place, IT departments risk
having their major functions outsourced.
An independent survey, commissioned by IT services provider
Dimension Data, found that companies rarely strove to measure the
performance of IT.
From around 200 in-depth interviews, independent research firm
Coleman-Parke, found 32% of all companies do not have any service
level agreements (SLAs) in place to measure IT department activity
against a specific target.
Of those with SLAs, only 41% of CIOs report they are regularly
monitored and 43% regularly report on the SLAs. Overall, those with
SLAs do not appear to be undertaking a robust level of measurement
and monitoring, with only one-quarter of companies using SLAs based
around end–to-end measurement of service, researchers said.
The most commonly used measurements for SLAs are non-financial
business impact measures (67%) followed by technical performance
measurements (59%).
The research also found few line of business managers had a
direct relationship with the IT departments which their work
ultimately funds.
Thirty five per cent of CIOs said they had a comprehensive and
integrated set of tools monitor and manage key performance metrics,
such as network capacity and application availability. Half of
respondents described their operations management tool set as
“partial” or “inadequate”.
IT departments that are largely seen as a cost centre and are
unable to demonstrate the level of service they provide to the
business, become vulnerable to external IT service providers who
are well versed in SLAs and delivering value, said Terry Wilson,
business development director for operations management solutions
with Dimension Data.
John Holden, senior research analyst with the Butler Group,
agreed that IT departments that did not measure their performance
and service level to users were ripe for outsourcing.
Other pressure for greater transparency of IT performance comes
from increasing awareness of the need for effective corporate
governance, Holden said. “There is increasing recognition that IT
is having to contend with increasing scrutiny from business.
Service levels should be part of a cyclical culture between IT and
business units.”
Although these ideas had been around for 30 years Holden said he
was unsurprised that they were not always taken up. IT directors
and CIOs who ignore these warnings risk losing their influence
within the organisation or even losing their jobs, he said.